Commander of The Royal Norwegian St.Olav's Order

Professor Erik Fosse has been appointed to Commander of The Royal Norwegian St.Olav's Order by H.M. the King. Professor Fosse has been recognized for his contributions in medicine and for the socoety. The decoration will take place at Fanehallen at Akerhus Castle in Oslo on June 14th 2013.

Read More »»

Professor Frode Lærum awarded Order of St.Olav

On February 14th 2013 professor Frode Lærum was given the Order of St.Olav awarded by HRH King Olav on December 2012. Professor Lærum was one of the founding fellows of The Intervention Centre in 1996. The Order was given for his contribution to medicine and health sevices in Norway. Internationally, professor Frode Lærum also founded the Moscow Centre which was a collaboration project between Faculty of Medicine at University of Oslo and leading Russian universities in Moscow. Colleagues from The Intervention Centre congratulates Frode Lærum with this great achievement. The Order was given to professor Lærum at a reception at Akershus Universty Hospital.

Read More »»

Milestone passed; more than 10 000 patients treated at The Intervention Centre

During Q4 in 2012 the number of patients treated at The Intervention Centre exceeded 10 000. The clinical procedures involving humans started in 1996, and has increased gradually over the last years. All clinical activities taking place at The Intervention Centre are part of protocol based research projects. All patient participation is complying with ethical guidelines and is based on informed and written conscent according to current laws and regulations for medical research. The patient figures show the Centre's unique position as a Clinical Research and Development Centre. In addition more than 1000 experimental non-human lab procedures has been performed at The Intervention Centre. Finally, the number of peer reviewed research papers in international journals has passed 400. For more detailed information about The Intervention Centre download the latest Annual Report from 2011. (Click image for larger view of figure to the left).

Read More »»

TTO Innovation Prize to research on robot-guided biopsy needle

PdD student Kim Mathiassen from The Intervention Centre and Institiute for Informatics at University of Oslo was given the the prize for "Most Innovative Contribution" at the recent 4th National PhD Confrence in Medical Imaging in competition with 70 other students. Kim's project was titeled "Estimation of biopsy needle tip in 2D ultrasound images". The work is part of the EU 7TH Framework Programme project I-SUR focusing on development of intelligent surgical robots. 20.000 NOK was given by the TTO's in Bergen, Oslo and Trondheim. See link to Inven2's article about the prize (Norwegian only).

Read More »»

Ultra-low dose CT matches chest radiography radiation dose in remarkable pilot study

A multiprofessional research team of radiologists, radiographers and physisists at The Intervention Centre and the Radiology Department at Oslo University Hospital have collaborated to test whether ultralow-dose CT can replace chest radiography. The remarkable results of a preliminary pilot study will be presented at this year's annual meeting of the Radiologial Society of North America (RSNA). Several factors as patient radiation dose, sensitivity and specificity for the various modalities, lab time etc. have been assessed. Three experienced radiologists evaluated the images, and a physisist calculated the radiation dose. The pilot study is mentioned in a professional internet community.

Read More »»

New PhD on "Force Sensor Free Teleoperated Robotic Surgery"

On November 8th, Edvard Narum defended his Thesis "Force Sensor Free Teleoperated Robotic Surgery- Interaction Force Estimation for Realistic Force Feedback without Force Sensors" at Faculty of Medicine at University of Oslo. Summary of Edvard Naerum’s PhD Research
Teleoperated robots have been used in keyhole surgery since the turn of the millennium. Among the advantages of teleoperated robotic surgery over manual keyhole surgery are the recovery of wrist-like dexterity inside the patient, the possibility of motion scaling, and elimination of hand tremor. A drawback of today’s solutions is that they lack force feedback, that is, the sense of touch. This is largely due to the difficulties associated with measuring the interaction forces that occur between the tip of the robot and the patient. It is a challenge to make force sensors that are small enough to be mounted at the tip of a surgical instrument, and that have a sufficient measurement range at the same time.

Read More »»

New PhD on "Efficient Proximity Queries for Minimally Invasive Surgery".

On October 31 Tangui Morvan defended his thesis at Faculty of Medicine at University of Oslo. The work was part of the Marie Curie EU Project ARISER tha twas coordinated by The Intervention Centre from 2004-2008. Tangui's supervisors were dr Eigil Samset dr Martin Reymers. Project abstract: Minimally invasive surgery is gaining increasing popularity due to its benefits over traditional approaches. However, a number of drawbacks hold back its wider adoption. Technological solutions based on advanced imaging modalities, robotic systems and virtual simulation aim to address these drawbacks. Proximity queries are an integral part of several of these solutions. This work aims to develop efficient proximity query algorithms and introduce innovative applications of proximity queries to minimally invasive surgery.

Read More »»

Prestigeous Innovation Award to The Intervention Centre

The prestigeous Techno Innovation Award from the European Association for Cardio- Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) was awarded to Steinar Halvorsen and Erik Fosse from The Intervention Centre at the EACTS 2012 annual meeting in Barcelona last week.The award was won for demontrating, in experimental and clinical studies, that measures from accellerometers can be used to assess global and regional left ventricular function accurately, even during regional myocardial ischemia induced by coronary artery occlusion. The new invention has important implications in diagnosing and monitoring of cardiac surgery patients. The image shows Steinar Halvorsen flanked by two EACTS representatives. Read the EACTS 2012 Newspaper about the award, and see the abstract describing the invention.

Read More »»

Bodynets 2012 was a success

The Bodynets conference successfully concluded yesterday. International experts from Asia, North America, and Europe were gathered at the event at Oslo University Hospital, hosted by professor Ilangko Balasingham from the Intervention Centre. The conference featured with 6 symposia, 5 plenary keynote speaks, 1 special session, panel discussion, and 3 workshops. The main conference and the workshops accepted 49 papers with 63 presentations and attracted in total 126 participants. This makes this year's Bodynets conference one of the largest conference so far in this academic community. Six student travel grants, each worth of NOK 3000 (US$ 500), were given. The best student paper and the best paper awards were given at the banquet, and the reception on Monday took place at the Edvard Munch museum. Selected papers from the main conference have been invited to submit extended version of their papers to "special issue" in the IEEE Trans IT in Biomedicine (TITB), ACM/Springer Mobile Networks & Applications (MONET), and Springer J. of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing (JAIHC). The image shows keynote speaker professor David Atienza from École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne EPFL, Switzerland.

Read More »»

OUS/The Intervention Centre hosts the 7th International Conference on Body Area Networks September 24–26, 2012

BODYNETS 2012 SCOPE

The advancement in sensing, embedded computing, and wireless communication has accelerated the progress of adopting sensor networks to form Body Area Networks (BodyNets). BodyNets integrate and deploy wireless sensors, RFID tags, and other pervasive devices within and around human bodies for constructing diverse and practical systems for physiological monitoring, human computer interaction, and provision of entertainment. This conference will explore and explain the scope and challenges of designing, building, and deploying BodyNets. In this regard, the conference aims to establish a forum to exchange ideas, discuss practices, raise awareness, and share experiences among researchers and practitioners in the field of computer science, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, medicine, and other disciplines in both academia and industry. This conference also allows authors to present new and emerging trends to address the technical, social, system and application issues related to BodyNets. The conference venue is Oslo University Hospital. Visit the Bodynets 2012 Website for more information.

Read More »»

New PhD on "Minimally invasive surgery in abdominal endocrine organs"

On June 28 2012 Irina Pavlik Marangos defended her thesis from The Intervention Centre at Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo. Irinas mentor was Bjørn Edwin MD, PhD. The evaluation commission first opponent was Ronald Mårvik, Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, NTNU, 2.opponent was professor Ola Røkke, Institute for Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, and 3. commision member Ellen Schlichting, Clinic for Cancer, Surgery and Transplantaion, Oslo University Hospital. Here is an abstract of the thesis: During the last several decades laparoscopic procedures on different organs were described. Some of them have already become a “gold standard” of treatment while others have remained controversial.

Read More »»

New PhD on Wireless Sensor Networks for Medical Applications

On Monday June 25 Stig Støa defended his dissertation at Faculty of Medicine at University of Oslo. On the image Stig (in the middle) is flanked by his mentors Tor Serre Lande (IfI, UiO), Dag T. Wisland (IfI, UiO), Ilangko Balasingham and Erik Fosse (both from the Intervention Centre). The theme of the dissertation is wireless sensor networks used for medical applications in the operating room, or within the intensive care unit. Medical wireless sensor networks must be able to transmit large amounts of sensor data wirelessly from one or more sensors, and process this data in real time. Energy consumption must also be kept at a minimum since the sensors are most likely to be battery powered. The dissertation therefore studies solutions to facilitate best use of wireless sensor resources, such as bandwidth and energy.

Read More »»

Course in quality control in MR and Nuclear medicine equipment

The course hosted by Section for Medical Physics at The Intervention Centre will be held from 6.-7th of June 2012. See program for further information

Read More »»